1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method for producing antibacterially active cepham and cephem derivatives, to antibacterially active penam derivatives, which are also useful as intermediate compounds in said process, and further to antibacterically active oxoazetidine derivatives which are useful as intermediates in said process and which further exhibit useful antibacterial properties. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for producing cephem derivatives having antibacterial activity from penam type compounds, which involves: (1) a unique oxidation procedure for oxidizing penam derivatives, (2) a unique reaction procedure involving said oxidized penam derivatives with a thiophilic sulfur nucleophile, to produce new oxoazetidine derivatives having antibacterial activity, which may further be reacted to produce unique base reaction products thereof, (3) a unique process involving halogenation of said oxoazetidine derivatives or base reaction products thereof, to produce unique halogenated cepham or penam derivatives, possessing antibacterial activity, (4) to a unique process for producing antibacterially active 3- and 2-cephem derivatives from said halogenated intermediates, and (5) to an alternative process for producing halogenated penam and cepham derivatives by direct halogenation of said oxidized penam derivative.
2. Description of The Prior Art
3- and 2-cepham derivatives of the type (I): ##STR4## wherein R.sub.1 is an amino or a substituted amino radical, and R.sub.4 is hydrogen, or R.sub.3 as will be defined below, and wherein the dotted lines indicate the alternative bond structure to provide the 3-cephem or 2-cephem isomers, are known in the prior art as possessing favorable antibacterial activity toward both gram-positive and gram-negative type bacteria. Its activity is recognized as being higher than most antibacterial compounds, yet it does not cause undesirable contraindications when administered to human beings, as do the more commonly available antibacterial compounds, such as penicillin. Heretofore, however, the reported methods for producing such cephem derivatives have proven to be generally disadvantageous from an industrial point of view because the obtainable yield of product was low and required rather complex isolation and purification procedures. The overall process techniques were therefore unduly costly, such that the product was economically uncompetitive with commercially available antibacterial compounds of lesser physiological activity.
It was first contemplated to prepare cephem derivatives from Cephalosporin C. However, the use of such a reactant was considered undesirable because it was quite expensive to obtain. It was later widely reported that cephem derivatives could be produced from the more inexpensive and more readily available penam compounds. However, the reported processes generally resulted in low yields and a generally impure product, and hence were incapable of producing a product which could be economically competitive with the prior art antibacterial compounds.
The process for preparing 7-amino(or acylamino)-3-methyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid or its ester by rearrangement of the corresponding 6-amino (or acylamino)-2,2-dimethylpenam-3-carboxylic acid-1-oxide or its ester is already known. For instance, it is known to produce cephem derivatives of the type 7-amino (or acylamino)-3-methyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid or its ester under acidic conditions (South African Pat. No. 67-1260, Belgian Pat. No. 747382, Belgian Pat. No. 745845, British Pat. No. 1204394, British Pat. No. 1204972 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,626), or in the presence of an acidic catalyst (Belgian Pat. No. 747118 and French Pat. No. 2020209), or in the presence of a rearranging catalyst such as a base and a silyl halide (Belgian Pat. No. 763104) or by use of a salt formed from a nitrogenous base and an acid (Belgian Pat. No. 747119). It is also known to produce 7-(2-phenoxyacetamido)-3-methyl-3-cephem by heating 6-(2-phenoxyacetamido)-2,2-dimethylpenam-3-carboxylic acid-1-oxide at a temperature of from 100.degree.-175.degree. C. under acidic conditions. (See. U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,626.) None of these processes, however, have proven to be entirely successful from the commercial point of view, and hence a need continues to exist for a more inexpensive technique for producing cephem derivatives whereby the product can be obtained in high yields and in good purity without the necessity of using difficultly obtainable special reagents.
One of the difficulties with producing cephem derivatives from penam derivatives, according to the prior art processes, is that it is difficult to obtain high yields of the oxide of the penam derivative, which is the necessary starting reactant for the prior art rearrangement reactions. Accordingly, it would be quite desirable to provide a method for producing such oxides of penam derivatives in high yields and good purity, which can then be subjected to rearrangement reactions to obtain high yields of the useful cephem derivative compounds.
It is, of course, well known that penam derivatives, such as penicillin, possess useful antibacterial activity. However, one difficulty with the preparation of penam derivative compounds for this purpose is that they must be purified to a relatively high degree, and the process of such purification is somewhat complex. Although a multitude of purification procedures have been reported in the prior art, none have proven to be entirely satisfactory, and other alternatives are continually being sought. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a method of converting penam derivatives in their impure state to other, more easily isolatable products, which can be administered directly into the body, wherein they might be used per se as antibacterial compounds, or wherein they might be reconverted into an available form of the penam derivative compounds.
The penam nomenclature for the penicillins is described by Sheehan, Henery-Logan, and Johnson in the J. Am. Chem. Soc., 75, 3293, footnote 2 (1953), and has been adapted to the cephalosporins by Morin, Jackson, Flynn, and Roeske in the J. Am. Chem. Soc., 84, 3400 (1962). In accordance with these systems of nomenclature, "penam" and "cepham" refer respectively to the following saturated ring structures: ##STR5## while "penem" and "cephem" refer to the same ring structure with a double bond.